Flexibility In The Middle Of Nowhere

A few days ago I stumbled upon a Wall Street Journal Magazine article about the work of Seattle-based architect Tom Kundig. He designed rustic homes on wheels that engage their landscape, as you can see in the picture. Kundig’s goal is to find balance between the structure and the landscape. I think he did a pretty nice job.

The rolling huts are both designed with a low-tech and low-impact focus in mind. Kundig admits the wheels of the houses serve aesthetic more than practical purposes, but also taken into account the raw and low cost materials he used, this project is absolutely a nice example of flexible architecture as it should be. Each hut cost about $75,000 to build.

Another example of the stunning work of Kundig’s firm is a project called ‘The Brain’ in Seattle. The Brain is a cinematic laboratory built for a filmmakerl, located in the midst of a forrest. Inserted along the north wall is a steel mezzanine. All interior structures were made of using raw, hot-rolled steel sheets. Niiiiice!

Grey walls, rows of working zombies, a never-ending flow of coffee — does this sound familiar to you? Let’s hope not, otherwise, immediately grab a copy of WorkScape: New Spaces For New Work. Sofia Borges, Sven Ehmann, and Robert Klanten from the publishing house Gestalten have carefully picked the most stunning and innovative workplaces from around the world to give companies and employees inspirational fodder on how workplaces could look like and should be nowadays.

“The Japanese always seem to lead the list with weird and wacky ideas” is stated on the Optical illusions weblog. In addition, I would like to say that they are good as well in creating exciting spatial concepts. This one is a great example. This fake swimming pool (1999) was created by the Argentinian artist…

I watched Inside Job by Charles Ferguson a few days ago. This compelling documentary does not only expose the economic crisis shocking truths but reminds us about the impact on ‘ordinary’ people in the US and abroad. America is plagued by unemployment rises and record foreclosures with the suburbs particularly hit. The Open House, a project…